The long conflict between Christendom and the Ottomans had any number of set pieces – the fall of Constantinople in 1453, the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, the siege of Vienna in 1683. One of the most consequential, however, is also one of the least known. For four months from May 1565, troops and sailors loyal to the sultan Suleiman the Magnificent besieged the Maltese stronghold of the Knights Hospitaller in an attempt to wrest control of the Mediterranean at its centrepoint.
In his thorough and propulsive narrative of the siege, the American crusader historian Marcus Bull describes every attack and rebuff in detail – the mechanics of attritional warfare as well as its unimaginable brutality and the personalities of the commanders on both sides. At the heart of it all was the fort of St Elmo and its resistance. Its defenders knew, as did their 6,000 comrades facing more than six times that number of attackers, that no quarter would be given. That they prevailed was, as Bull makes clear, less to do with the salvation of Christianity and the West than self-preservation against blood-curdling odds.
By Michael Prodger
Allen Lane, 352pp, £30. Buy the book
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